Line of Contact

The Line of Contact marked the farthest advance of American, British, French, and Soviet armies into German controlled territory at the end of World War II in Europe.

[1] The first visual contact occurred at 11:30 am, April 25, in the village of Leckwitz, when First Lieutenant Arnold Kotzebue, from the 69th Infantry Division, saw a horseman, named Aitkali Alibekov,[2] riding into the courtyard of one of the houses on the central street.

The Western Allies had actually gone far beyond the Yalta agreement boundaries, in some cases up to two hundred miles past, going deep into the states of Mecklenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, as well as Brandenburg.

The Soviet Union might not have allowed American, British and French forces into Berlin, which was completely under their control, if the U.S. had not honored the Yalta agreement boundaries.

The US Army did not withdraw from western Czechoslovakia until December 1945, as part of an agreement removing all American and Soviet troops from the country.

A commemorative plaque now stands where the "East Meets West" moment took place in Torgau on Elbe Day , 1945.
Final positions of the Western Allied and Soviet armies, May 1945
Allied occupied areas, 15 May 1945, with territory under Allied control on 1 May 1945 in pink and later Allied gain in red
Final positions of the Western Allied and Soviet armies, May 8, 1945. Areas not yet occupied also indicated.
Areas vacated by U.S. forces to Soviet forces in summer 1945 shown in lilac, not including the areas of Mecklenburg already ceded by US/British forces to Soviet control earlier